Saturday Times 24359 (17th Oct)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time not recorded for some reason. I normally write it alongside the grid in my printout, but I must have forgotten last week. Now I remember why. I solved all but 5D in about 12 minutes, but just couldn’t get it. Eventually I gave up, but came back to it later in the afternoon and saw it straight away. Duh!

Across
1 BOGUS – GO back in the BUS. Very clever use of wordplay there.
4 LAST POST – double definition. The bugle call always played at military funerals.
8 CLAUSTROPHOBIA – is this a cryptic definition or a Christmas cracker joke?
10 WASSAILER – W(ith) + (salaries)*
11 FICHU – hidden in speciFIC HUe. Never heard of it, but an easy one to get.
12 OSBERT – SO rev. + BERT(h). Sir Osbert Lancaster, the old Daily Express cartoonist.
14 BARGAINS – BAR GAINS
17 SET ASIDE – T(ime) in SEASIDE
18 HAGGAI – “hag I”. One of the minor prophets in the Old Testament.
20 AGORA – A GOR(ill)A. A word very familiar to solvers of barred crosswords.
22 ON THE TOWN – double definition.
24 THE FORSYTE SAGA – (say got feathers)*. A series of novels by John Galsworthy.
25 IDOLISED – IDO (an offshoot of Esperanto) + LIED around S(on).
26 DRANK – D(ead) + RANK.

Down
1 BACKWOODSMAN – BACK + O.D. in (woman’s)*
2 GRASS – GRAS(p)S
3 SASSAFRAS – FR(ench) inside SAS SAS.
4 LORDLY – RD replacing one of the L’s in LOLLY
5 SUPERMAN – PERM (football pools selection) + A in SUN. Kent being Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego.
6 PROOF – O in PROF
7 SWITCHING – (side)S + WITCHING (the witching hour, midnight).
9 QUESTION MARK – QUESTION (not believe) + MARK (the gospel). The definition is just “?”
13 BETROTHED – (debtor)* around THE.
15 GRAVESEND – GRAVES (Robert Graves, the poet) + END. A town in Kent on the south bank of the Thames.
16 ADJOURNS – (US Jordan)*
19 STAYED – ST(r)AYED, &lit.
21 AWFUL – AWL (one that’s boring) around F(o)U(r).
23 OMAHA – O.M. (high honour, the Order of Merit) + AHA (I’ve got it!). Largest city in Nebraska.

6 comments on “Saturday Times 24359 (17th Oct)”

  1. An easy somewhat undistinguished puzzle. I love the remark in the blog about a Christmas cracker joke – brilliant description of a weak clue.

    I think the setter might have to work hard to justify GRAVESEND as a port. The port is Tilbury immediately opposite it across the river and has been for a long time. GRAVESEND is a maritime centre and was a well known staging post on the way to Canterbury and Dover.

  2. I had the Forsyth Saga. I must have been thinking of Saturday evening television. It took me a long time to see Gravesend and correct my mistake. Otherwise the main problems were with Lancaster and Kent. Even after I worked out that the only possible answer was Superman I was struggling to see why. I’m not very good at books of the bible but I did make an effort to memorise them recently so I managed to dredge Haggai from my memory. The other rare words, Fichu and Agora are crossword stalwarts
  3. 14:30 ,, which made it disappointingly straightforward for a Saturday puzzle.

    Thrown for a while by 12a with ‘Lancaster’ and the checking letters suggesting ‘Burt’, and of course by trying to fit BARBREAKSEVEN into 14a, but there wasn’t much to think about here.

  4. I agree that Gravesend is barely a port these days. I recall that Nantes was also described as a port a few days ago, despite having lost virtually all of its river commerce to St Nazaire. It seems to be a fairly standard method these days of misleading solvers. You could describe Maidstone as a port if you wanted, it has a river and some boats..

    On another subject, I notice that the Times has broken with tradition by naming the setters of all the crosswords used in Cheltenham – see the Bulletin Board page. It says it will retain anonymity for the daily puzzles, which I agree with.

  5. One of those “I’ve got the answers, but I don’t get the answers” puzzles. Thanks for clearing up 25a and 5d.

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